When is the adjacency for "Close Assault" checked?

[C0MMAND]

Just played this irl for the first time with a couple of friends today and we had differing interpretation of the Close Assault battle scenario.

My understanding was that Movement Phase of all ordered units occur before the Battle Phase. As such, I may move my Tanks to place them adjacent to a group of enemy units before attacking, and elimination of these enemies allowed an Armor Overrun to occur.

However, the other interpretation was that the Close Assault adjacency is checked when the Command Card is played, i.e. Close Assault and Armour Overrun is only permitted when the Tanks are already adjacent to the enemy units before the Movement Phase and not after they moved.

Does anyone have a replay showing this circumstance?

[Sacha2142]

If you're talking about the 'Close Assault' card, the movement phase is kind of skipped because the card says that ordered units cannot move (except for taking ground or assault overrun).

[C0MMAND]

Nope, I'm not referring to the specific card. That card is clear that the units do not have a Movement Phase. I meant other Command Cards in which you may order units to move/battle.

If you're talking about the 'Close Assault' card, the movement phase is kind of skipped because the card says that ordered units cannot move (except for taking ground or assault overrun).

[sam1812]

See if this clarifies it for you. I'm numbering the points to correspond to the box on page 6 of the rule book.

2. Order phase: You designate which units will be ordered. (IRL, some people use colored tokens or Memoir dice to indicate which units are ordered.)

3. Movement phase: Move whichever ordered units you want to move. Leave in place those you don't want to move. (If a unit moves into terrain that forbids battling, such as moving into a forest, and you're using tokens to mark ordered units, remove the token at that point. Some people switch to a different colored token to indicate that a unit is eligible to battle.)

4. Battle Phase: One unit at a time, your eligible units battle. (IRL, some people use a token of some sort to indicate which enemy unit they're targeting.) If one of your eligible units is adjacent to one or more enemy units at the moment when you roll the dice for its attack, it must battle against one of the adjacent enemy units. After each roll, remove casualties immediately, and if your unit rolled any flags against the enemy unit, that targeted unit must retreat before your next unit battles.

If your unit was adjacent to an enemy unit, but that enemy was retreated away, it is no longer obligated to attack that target. If your unit wasn't adjacent to an enemy unit, but it now is, because of a retreat or an Armor Overrun, it must battle adjacent. Sequence your attacks accordingly. Sometimes - for example, on a Firefight or Close Assault card - it can make a huge difference.

[jeroenh]

To try to explain it another way, the close assault conditions are checked twice:

1) when you order units, they have to be next to enemy units.
2) when you battle, you can only do close assault, so the unit must be next to it.

So, a unit that is not next to an enemy unit, can not be ordered.
If a unit is ordered initially, but can no longer do close assault, then it can not battle.

[Jeronimon]

Close assault, not the card, occurs when a unit is adjacent to an enemy unit after the movement phase.

So to get an adjacent attack, and a subsequent take ground or overrun takes place and is checked in the firing phase.

Card close assault
At the beginning of the turn your troops need to be adjacent. If your opponents are flagged away from another troop you cannot fire at them anymore. So adjacency is checked at the specific moment one specific unit fires not at the beginning of the firing phase.

Firefight
Same thing if you order a unit but you flag an opponent to an adjacent position it cannot fire anymore. There also the adjacency is checked for the specific unit that you want to fire at that moment.

Hope this helps